Beetroot (also can be spelled as two words - beet root), most commonly referred to as beets, is so full of nutrition and has been mentioned as having such good benefits it is hard to ignore.
It isn’t the easiest vegetable to handle. It’s hard and it bleeds when you cut it, staining everything and it has a distinct earthy flavor that isn’t the best at complimenting other flavors. The golden beet, another variety of the same plant, both are the Beta Vulgaris Plant, is a little softer and sweeter, but it is still relatively hard. Nevertheless, so many studies show that it is so healthy for you that you should have some of it on a daily basis. [1]
In fact, when I asked Dr. Shannon of the Natural Healing Center in Newport Beach, California, what she thought of beetroot, she said it was wonderful and she told me that she tells all her patients, “ A beet a day will keep constipation away”. Then she added, “well not a whole beet, but at least a few bites a day.”
Constipation of the digestive tract or anything that constitutes congestion in an organ or vessel is considered the root cause of all disease in many systems of natural healing, such as Naturopathy, Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine, so it’s no wonder it is good for so many important things. And as far as having it every day? Thank goodness for beetroot powder. Beetroot capsule benefits are the same and the convenience helps ensure that you won’t miss a day of beetroot nutrition. And you can always still enjoy eating fresh whole beets.
Nutritional Value of Beetroot
Beets are visually beautiful in a dish. When you cut them open the bright color and the rings stand out. The color is due to a class of pigment called Betalains. Betalains consist of betacyanins which are red to purple and betaxanthins which are golden or yellow.
Those colorful compounds contain nitrogen and form sodium nitrate in the body. Now before your hair stands up because you avoid sodium nitrate like the plague as a preservative in meats, let's look at the difference between a single active ingredient made in a lab and one that is complexed within nature’s recipe. That difference is the whole basis of synthetic or isolated vitamins versus whole food or herbal supplements.
Food Scientists are always discovering more and more pieces of the puzzle and man-made supplements have thus improved over the years. However, you can’t beat Mother Nature. There seems to always be yet more pieces that haven’t yet been discovered. In the case of the beet, sodium nitrate is accompanied by practically every vitamin the human body needs, [2] plus:
- Minerals
- dietary fiber
- Polyphenols
- flavonoids
- a whole lot of antioxidants
Because of this the body utilizes it differently. Isolated sodium nitrate, by itself, tends to convert to nitrites that convert to nitrosamines which are generally known to be carcinogens.This is not so for the sodium nitrate in beets. It converts to nitrates that convert to nitric oxide which is very beneficial to health.In fact, according to a healthline.com article “38 adults, consuming a beetroot juice supplement, increased nitric oxide levels by 21% after just 45 minutes.” [3]
The first I ever heard of Nitric Oxide, which is written N.O. for short, or by its commonly written chemical formula NO, was when my Doctor told me I had a shortage of it and that accounted for my head fog. Now I see that that made perfect sense because NO has been isolated as a neurotransmitter in the brain and is also important in the way cells talk to each other. [4] What could be more important than that? Wouldn’t that affect every single bodily function?
More specific benefits that have been mentioned in the literature (That’s the way doctors and scientists refer to the professional journals and scientific studies) [5]are:
- Improves cardiac health
- Enhances athletic performance in moderately trained individuals
- Reduces erectile dysfunction
- Reduces high blood pressure
- Improves respiratory response like not getting out of breath as fast and carrying more oxygen in each breath.
1. Heart Health
It has been shown that beetroot can help control high blood pressure, likely due to the fact that Nitric Oxide dilates blood vessels which would cause blood pressure levels to drop. But beets are also high in Folic Acid and studies show that folic acid supplementation decreased both systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. This does not handle the basic cause of the high blood pressure, so you have to keep eating the beetroot over time, but having a lower blood pressure because of that will still prevent or reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
2. Inflammation
Because of the betalain pigments found in beets, beets have been studied and shown to decrease inflammation. Inflammation is associated with almost every disease there is, if not every disease.
You learn in physiology class that the disease process starts with irritation, which causes inflammation, which causes induration, which is basically the tissues hardening like in fibrosis of the liver, for example. Induration eventually leads to dysfunction and death. So it’s no small thing to reduce inflammation. Not to mention the benefits of pain reduction.
Also beetroot juice was shown to reduce inflammation in the toxic kidneys of rats. Well, we aren’t rats so more human studies need to be done, but it’s worth a try experimenting on yourself until such studies are done.
3. Low in Calories
Another benefit of beetroot is that even though it is stuffed with nutrition it is low in calories. There are only 44 calories in a little less than a half a cup. It is suggested that the best ways to have beet is raw or roasted or juiced, not
boiled. Nutrients are lost in the water when boiled. Powdered beet is the whole beet dried and broken down into a powder so you get the fiber and all the nutrients, so that is a good way too. And powder encapsulated in vegan capsules makes it even more convenient.
Summary
In summary, adding beets to your diet is a pretty good idea. Adding them everyday might not be the most convenient and that is the reason for our very convenient beet root powder capsules.
Beets enhance your overall body function from as broad as the nervous and lymphatic systems down to specific functioning of the heart and lungs.
So, now I think you can see that the benefits of beetroot are too good to pass up. If you want to order beetroot capsules click here to put in your order and may the beet power be with you.
References:
- Beets, cooked, boiled, drained - FDC
- Acute ingestion of beetroot juice increases exhaled nitric oxide in healthy individuals - NCBI
- Why is nitric oxide important for our brain? - NCBI
- Beetroot as a functional food with huge health benefits: Antioxidant, antitumor, physical function, and chronic metabolomics activity - NCBI
- The Potential Benefits of Red Beetroot Supplementation in Health and Disease - NCBI
